Chapter 255: A puzzling scene

The rustling of leaves and snapping of branches followed the large convoy of people that marched across the woods. At its lead, a purple-haired beautiful woman was navigating in a path that whilst mostly followed the main route, it did not cross it or step foot near it even once. She also made sure to not enter areas or clearings where they could be easily ambushed. 

Although this made the whole journey just that much harder, it also gave the large crowd a bit more reassurance. The last they would have wanted was to find themselves suddenly surrounded by these horrendous, brutal creatures.

"Umm… Miss Sarah, may I ask how much longer we have to go before we can take some rest?" A messy, brown-haired girl at the front, meekly raised a question. The group wasn't like the miss at the front, they weren't trained fighters, they were weak, spent, and most importantly, tired. 

"We can't rest now, we need to put as much distance between us and them as we can. Just grit your teeth and tough it out. If you want to get your freedom back, then work for it!" Instead of the purple-haired miss, another feminine voice came from behind the brown-haired girl, jolting her body in fright. 

Seeing the girl as it jumped, earned a satisfied chuckle from the woman behind her. She walked forward, revealing her fiery red locks and stepping out of the crowd, walking next to the leading Sarah at the front. 

"How much longer, what do you think?" She asked as she arrived at her right.

"Probably another hour or so. Not sure, we have to be careful." Sarah answered, keeping his focus ahead. As they crossed an especially thorny bush, she turned towards the east and gave a sigh. 

"We only arrived at the edges of their 'territory'..." She muttered silently, so only Scarlet could hear her words.

"What? That's…-" Before Scarlet could finish her complaint about the speed of their traversal, both her and Sarah's attention suddenly snapped to the thick, dark-looking section of the woods in front of them.

Unsheathing her sword, Sarah entered into a battle-ready stance, and whilst keeping her attention to the eerie sight ahead, she whispered to Scarlet who was already in a similar state.

"Go to the back and alert Naybeah, we have company." 

Keeping her sight on the same spot as Sarah for a bit longer, Scarlet silently nodded and turned to leave. Taking only a step, she stopped and without looking back she spoke in a tone that only Sarah could hear. 

"Be safe until I return."

"Heh…" Sarah gave a silent chuckle at her words, although the girl was already gone, whizzing through the crowd of escaped slaves, hastily rushing towards the back towards the tall, blonde amazon. 

However, as she crossed the halfway point, she suddenly sensed the same feeling, the dark presence of those ugly, brutish orcs from behind them as well. Gritting her teeth, she further increased her speed, rushing through the crowd at her maximum speed.

Closing in towards the tail of the convoy, she could already spot the sight of the tall woman as it was gripping her humungous battle axe in her hands, his back turned towards the group, gazing at a dark spot behind them.

As she arrived next to the amazon, before she could even speak, Naybeah spoke in a grave tone.

"4 coming from behind, and I'm guessing they are already at our front as well. We have to act before they completely surround us, we will not be able to protect everyone then…"

Shaking her head, a large grin suddenly appeared on her face, she began to breathe loudly, in a manic, battle-hungry manner.

Without waiting for an answer from the red-haired princess, she stepped forward, focusing her gaze on the dark woods behind them.

"Stay and protect these people. Although I haven't seen her fight, I know that you don't need to worry about Sarah, she can protect herself."

With that said, Naybeah grabbed her trusty weapon tighter and left the stunned Scarlet. She slowly approached towards the dark section of the woods where both of them could already feel the Orcs. 

After only a couple of steps, the orcs seemingly realized that they were spotted, and with a loud roar rushed out from their hiding spot. 

As they stepped out from the dark and into the moonlight, just as Naybeah said, four robust looking, bare-chested, dark-brown skinned humanoid creatures appeared. They held their crude weapons in hand, and whilst raising them above their heads they all let out another battle cry and charged forward, aiming at the tall woman in front of them. 

Instead of the expected fright, Naybeah only looked more and more excited at such a sight. With a crazed grin stretched dominating her face. She planted her feet in the ground, ready to accept the charged blows of the incoming assailants. Her muscles suddenly bulged, the veins turning visible as the muscles contorted and flexed. She slowly arched her weapon to the left, her eyes focused on the rapidly closing distance between her and her enemies.

In mere seconds the charging orcs arrived at melee range, Naybeah swung his axe sideways at around waist level. Contrary to her size, the weapon in her hand wooshed through the air at lightning speed, ready to slice the enemy in half upon contact.

Scarlet could barely even follow the weapon as it flew through its arch. The sudden swing surprised even the orcs, quickly slowing down their rush, lowering their weapon in front of them to block the sudden attack.

Just as her weapon was about to crash onto the first weapon, Naybeah smirked in contempt, abruptly stopping the powerful swing in an instant and pulled the weapon back. She launched herself in the air, aiming at the leftmost orc, swinging her weapon vertically.

Scarlet was watching the sight with wide-eyes and with her mouth open. Although she already knew that this blonde woman was a fearsome combatant, witnessing her ferocity in action was a marvelous sight. 

Remembering the words of the amazon, she shook her head a few moments later. Concerned about Sarah at the front, despite being told that she can probably handle herself, she turned around and rushed back as fast as she could.

As she slowly approached the core of the group, the sounds of battle, weapons clashing against each other reached her ears. Increasing her speed, she ignored the frightened looks of the nearby slaves, and whilst nervously gripping the handle of her small dagger, she zapped through the crowd.

As she got closer, a strange, and puzzling sight slowly revealed itself in front of her. At the front, she saw the standing Sarah, gently waving with her arms as her hands formed strange symbols in the air. 

A faint purple glow could be seen coming from her face, but as she was facing the scene in front of her, Scarlet couldn't see where it was coming from.

The scene in front of her however was puzzling, to say the least. Similar to what she saw at the back, four bare-chested orcs were battling, but instead of charging at the defenseless Sarah, they were fighting against each other in a grand melee. Their crude axes were vehemently clashing against each other, with such power that would cause fatal damage on impact. This wasn't just a show of play, these orcs were crazed and wanted to kill each other.

Arriving closer, she noticed the similar purplish mist shrouding all four orcs' eyes. The color and glow were similar to the hue that radiated from Sarah's eyes. Sarah continued with the gentle waves with both of her hands, whilst drawing strange symbols in the air. Each time she finished one, the symbol briefly lit up with a colorless white light before quickly vanishing in the air.

Seeing her intent focus, Scarlet decided to remain silent and just continued to watch the strange and puzzling sight with apt attention, her dagger still tightly held in her right hand.

Just like her, the slaves at the front were stunned at the sight as well. Just a moment ago, when the orcs suddenly jumped out from the eerie darkness ahead, they almost fainted, knowing that they would be goners if these brutes were to reach them. Their only hope was this purple-haired girl that, besides guiding them through the woods, haven't shown any skills that would assist her in combat. Whilst they did not voice their thoughts, nearly all of the slaves at the front would have felt much better with the robust amazon leading them.

However, merely a second later, as the orcs roared loudly, rapidly closing in on them, they suddenly stopped in their tracks. A strange, mystical purple light surrounded them, and they started hitting each other as if they suddenly turned mad.

Unable to explain such a puzzling sight, they turned towards Miss Sarah once more, only to see that a similar purplish glow came from her. Her hands were gently waving against the wind, she was standing calmly, focusing on the sudden melee brawl… 

Suddenly, they all felt that maybe, just maybe this girl wasn't that worthless anymore...

***

Please read the author's note just below! Thank you!